During our time at Long Beach Com ic
Con 2015, I attended the "Psychology
of Daredevil" panel where I got taken
into the world of Dar edevil. I got to
hear from two of the staff writers,
Christos Gage and Ruth Fletcher Gage
(who happened to pen the episode
'Speak Of The Devil'), actors Peter
Shinkoda and Tom Walker, and Dr.
Andrea Letamendi who has a Ph.D. in
psychology.

would've been against this mysterious
silent ninja." It was actually Ruth who
decided against it. As the audience
was already familiar with Nobu, she
believed it would confuse the viewers
who aren't knowledgeable with the
comics to introduce a random ninja,
who doesn't speak nonetheless.

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Into"speak of thedevil "
During the panel, the cast and writers
talked a lot about the 'Speak Of The
Devil' episode, as all four of them
were involved with it to some capacity
throughout production. We got plenty
of interesting insight into the writing
behind the episode from an interview
with Christos.
For instance, the fight scene that plays
out during the whole episode between
Nobu (Peter Shinkoda) and Daredevil
(Charlie Cox) could've been a slightly
different scenario. By different, I
mean the fight almost wasn't with
Nobu at all. The writing staff 's first
option was a Daredevil character
named Kirigi. "...it would've been this
gigantic ninja in robes where you can't
even see his face and it would've been
probably a very similar fight but it

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Ruth was considered a crucial part of
the writing staff due to the fact prior
to working on this project, she'd never
read a Daredevil comic. "It was so
important because when you're doing
a TV show, even a comic book
character TV show, you have to
assume that probably the majority of
your audience will be people who
don't read comics." In the long run, it
definitely helped out.
Christos had a bit of his own
advantage for the writers room.
During his solo panel for the
Eat.Geek.Play. Podcast he shared with
the audience that his father was a
crime reporter who'd meet with mob

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informants. "I think that 's one of the
things Drew [Coddard] found
intriguing from the start..." It helped
give the writers an edge when it came
to the character of Ben Urich. "...when
my dad did investigative reporting he
could spend months on a single story
and the paper would pay for it, and
nowadays they'd be like 'that 's not
budget effective, we need you to cover
a variety of stories..." which is
basically the case with Ben.
'Speak Of The Devil' is easily one of
the most critically acclaimed episodes
of the first season. From the panel
alone you can tell just how much love
went into it. "We were trying to
encompass a lot of things that are
important to Daredevil; the religion,
the character, the inter conflicts, of
course an awesome ninja fight... So to
hear people say stuff like that and all
the number of people who told us this
is their favorite episode makes us feel
really good."

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IntoNobu&Francis
Aside from getting the chance to dwell
more into the writing process behind
the series, I also got a chance to talk
with actors Peter Shinkoda and Tom
Walker. Peter played the role of Nobu,
a mysterious Japanese man with an
agenda. "From where the starting
point of the show was [where] you can
see me, I was kind of pissed off."
Peter mentioned during the panel that
he was criticized on the portrayal of
Nobu as being 'too intense'. "Certainly
in Nobu's eyes he's got an agreement
with Fisk [and] Fisk obviously has one
with him... but as you [can] see Fisk is
not taking care of his side and hasn't
been previously to my introduction in
the show." Intense would be anyone's
reaction when their plans all rely on
one man and that one man is failing to
keep up his side of the bargain. "I
don't necessarily think he's a pissed
off guy, just kind of gets introduced
that way and gets more aggravated."
There weren't too many characters
other than Madame Gao and

Daredevil who could stand toe-to-toe
with Kingpin throughout the series.
Nobu was one of those few though, he
wouldn't back down in terms of what
he'd say or if he came off threatening.
"...when I entered in to his little lair,
the second time, Tommy Walker 's
character Francis tried to subdue me

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or prevent me from going in and I
twisted his arm and I told Fisk to get
his pet off me." He was definitely an
opposing force to Fisk who proposed
him with a problem.
As I mentioned we also got to talk
with Tommy Walker who played the
role of Francis. If you may not
remember him, Fisk beat the crap out
of him after discovering the death of
his dear friend Wesley. The odd thing
about this is Francis comes back to
work for Fisk as if nothing ever

happened. "I think fear definitely has
a big factor because, come on, I think
Fisk has this... you know, as the
Kingpin's lore goes, he's not just a
man, he's a presence, an entity that
somewhat takes over the city and in
the Dar edevil history we all know that
when you hear his name... They built a
mythos around him."
Tom said, and I quote "I think you
probably nailed it..." when I added
that Francis just may have understood
where he sat on the food chain in this
situation. "He does understand where
he sits on the food chain but he also
got kind of like a promotion by
default, so he also understands that."
Francis can be seen at the end of the
series with Vanessa before she takes
off on a helicopter. With that said, we
may even be seeing more of Francis in
season 2.

S1;E13

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Into

d'onofrio
" Like t he f ir st day you know, he
doesn't know m e. So he gives you a
lit t le nod, t he next day 'hello', t hen
t he next day it 's 'Good m or ning,
m or ning Tom m y' and you'r e like
'oh, he's got m y nam e now '. He's a
joy once you get him t alking and
he's t elling st or ies and he's so loose
and so cool. He's like got t his hippie
m ent alit y in som e ways, like he's
such a cool laid back dude... So he's
not hing like Fisk in r eal lif e,
absolut ely not hing like Fisk. He's
ver y good t o ever yone... ver y awar e
of ever yone else on set ... polit e, but
not in t hat like 'I 'm being polit e
because I 've been in t his business
20 year s, 30 year s. He's act ually
ver y polit e, he does appr eciat e t he
lit t le t hings and he's so m uch f un t o
wat ch wor k. I t 's like a m ast er s
class wat ching him do his t hing. I t 's
cool." - Tom m y Walker